“Of course,” Zoe said. “I’m really sorry. The excitement of this whole thing’s got my nerves on edge.”

They walked back to the sofa and sat down. Seth scanned the pages. Then: “ ‘Apparently one day in this settlement without a church or synagogue,’ “ he continued, “ ‘Sophia got up on an oxcart parked in what passed for the center of town and started preaching. Miracles followed: healing—’ “ He waited for reaction. She gave him an indulgent look but said nothing.

“ ‘Sophia went about casting out demons, and one time when the villagers’ oil supply had run out for their lamps …’ ” He held up a finger as he put down his wineglass, bent over the manuscript and carefully sorted through the pages.

Zoe sat down beside him and placed her hand on his thigh, feeling the hard, lean muscles under her fingers. Her eyes searched his face and watched the muscles shift and focus as he concentrated on the manuscript.

“Here it is,” Seth said as he pulled a page of the manuscript from the pile and began to read from the handwritten Greek. “ ‘Thereupon the whole multitude being dismayed, Sophia directed those who attended to the lights to draw water and bring it to her. This being immediately done, she prayed over the water and with firm faith in the Lord commanded them to pour it into the lamps. And when they had done so, contrary to all expectation, by a wonderful and divine power, the nature of the water was changed into that of oil.’

“It says here that the people referred to her as ‘Zaddik,’ which is translated either as ‘the Righteous One’ or ‘the Teacher of Righteousness.’ ”

Seth stopped and pointed to the page. “Now, see that? It’s a circle around her name… and here.” He pointed to another place. “That’s the word for ‘she.’ ”

Zoe nodded. “And?”

“And remember I told you this is a preliminary draft—not the finished work?” he began eagerly. “Well, this is the same story that I have read before from the works of Eusebius. But in the final version, it’s the story of the martyr Narcissus—a ‘he’ in the final version. This manuscript is probably the true version, but it was edited to change the sex.”

“Now there’s a big surprise,” Zoe said.

They looked at each other silently for a moment before Seth continued.

“Yeah. Well, it wasn’t very long after she started performing miracles that word got out. Eusebius, who was a bishop in the Christian Church as it has become and as it was recognized by Emperor Constantine, paid a visit to Sophia’s little hamlet. It wasn’t all that far from Constantinople or from the palace in Nicomedia. I figure that this had to turn into a major event that had the full attention of the emperor himself.”

“How come?” Zoe took a sip of her wine. In her mind she visualized the Byzantine art and the architecture she had studied while he populated her vision with the people of the time.